Indian Rape Victim is ‘Struggling Against the Odds’

A Singapore hospital that is treating the Indian student who was brutally gang raped in New Delhi earlier this month says the young woman is fighting for her life and has suffered a “significant brain injury.”

Kelvin Loh, CEO of Mount Elizabeth Hospital, said Friday that in addition to the brain injury, the 23-year-old victim had suffered cardiac arrest in India where she had undergone three abdominal surgeries. He said she also has an infection in her lungs and abdomen and is “struggling against the odds.”

Loh said the woman arrived at the facility early Thursday in “extremely critical condition.”

The woman was traveling on a charter bus on December 16 when a group of men on board raped and beat her with an iron rod and then threw her from the bus.

Police have arrested six alleged attackers, who are accused of rape and attempted murder.

A report Friday in an Indian newspaper says some Indian doctors are questioning the airlifting of the rape victim to the hospital in Singapore.

Dr. Samiran Nundy, chairman of the organ transplant and gastro-surgery department of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, told The Hindu the transfer of the critically-ill woman from an Indian hospital where she received good care made little sense and “seems more of a political move.”

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a development conference Thursday that attacks against women happen “in all states and regions” and require greater attention from national and local officials. He said India cannot have meaningful development without the active participation of women, and that their security must be assured.

In northern India, officials say a 17-year-old Indian girl from Punjab state who was gang raped in November has killed herself after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers.

Before her death Wednesday, there had been no arrests in her case. Officials say three people were arrested Thursday.